Chicago working on biotech incubator

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Tuesday a plan to create a collaborative work center for biotechnology startups in downtown Chicago that’s set to open early next year.

The center will be based on 1871, the hub for digital startups at the Merchandise Mart that opened last May. The 50,000-square foot space at 1871 provides affordable shared workspace at flexible terms for entrepreneurs and hosts events. Venture capital firms and local universities also have permanent offices at 1871, giving them access to startups.

“I want to make that same type of partnership and strategy, leveraging our assets and our universities, our research, our established companies like Baxter and Abbott and put everybody under one roof, specifically in the biotech and life sciences field,” Emanuel said during a brief lunchtime speech at the BIO International Convention at McCormick Place. By putting those companies together, it will foster and support the development of new startups, he said.

The biotech center, which Emanuel said will be in Streeterville, will aim to give startups space while providing a downtown presence for some established companies. About a dozen startups have expressed interest in becoming part of the project, according to the mayor's office. And Chicago Innovation Mentors, a biotech collaboration of Northwestern, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, iBio propel and Argonne Laboratories, has signed on as a founding member of the center.

John Flavin, executive director of Chicago Innovation Mentors, said organizers are seeking to open the center around March or April of next year. The group is still looking for an appropriate location.

"In many respects, you've got this virtual community of people but not really a space to tie it all together," Flavin said.

Flavin said a group of local biotech boosters began working on the center about 18 months ago and presented the idea to ChicagoNEXT, a science and technology group within World Business Chicago, the city's economic development arm. The mayor's office showed enthusiasm for the concept, especially after seeing how 1871 has become a beacon for digital startups in the area.

Local venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker helped fund 1871, which also received a $2.3 million grant from Illinois. Flavin said he couldn't comment on financing for the planned biotech center, but that organizers are "in the process of securing the details around the early funding." The center will eventually be self-sustaining, he said.

Emanuel did not address how the center would be funded and did not take questions from reporters following his brief speech. But he referred to the city as a “partner” in the effort that will “nurture and help promote” the bioscience industry.

The Midwest employs and invests more in the bioscience industry than either California or the Northeast Corridor, according to the mayor's office. In the Chicago area, biotech companies support more than 45,000 employees.